LOST in a Flash: Top 10 from 'Sundown'

Whitney Matheson who writes the Pop Candy column on the USA Today has a LOST discussion thread after each new episode and each Friday she posts the ten most intriguing comments. I seriously cannot believe some of the little Easter Eggs people catch. Here are the ones for the 3/5/10 episode, Sundown. (Click the title to link to the article.)

*Check it out, I have been reading this for like the last three years of LOST-watching and this is the first time I ever commented and I made it to the Top 10 comments! Sa-weet!

1. froglegggz: The flash sideways are showing us what happens if they "take the deal" from Flocke/Jacob.Dogens deal w/jacob was that he would take his new job... keepin the temple safe... and he would be rewarded with his son never having died... his sacrifice would be that he was never allowed to see him/leave... So i think it was very clear tonight that we saw Sayid after he took Flocke's deal... Nadia would be alive...and his sacrifice was HE COULD NEVER BE WITH HER!

2. CA Steeler: The hieroglyph tile on the wall in the temple hallway that Ilana pushes to open the secret passage is a Shen ring. The Shen ring is an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternity and protection. In ancient Egypt, the Shen Ring also represents dual concepts of time; the cyclic line of periodicity and lineal time.

3. amypro: Dogen's deal with Jacob to save his son's life was very similar to the deal that Juliet made with Bento save her sister's life. Interesting cause Ben never really spoke to Jacob yet it seems like he was acting on Jacob's behalf.

4. Bryan: Why didn't Jack and Sayid recognize each other at the hospital? They both had played a part in getting Charlie out of the bathroom in sideways 815. Is this supposed to mean something or did this Sayid sideways story happen before the flight?

5. QuarterRoy00: I think the big takeaway from this episode is that Jack's jeep (seen last week) and the van in Nadia's driveway both have the same California license plate(2SAQ321). This can only mean that Nadia and Jack are having an affair.

6. monkeyringleader: With all the Flocke is offering the 815ers, Claire - Aaron, Sayid - Nadia, Sawyer - life elsewhere; it seems to me that the Flash-Sideways Timeline somehow belongs to Flocke. He hates everything that's on the island, and it destroyed seems to be his ultimate goal.And in the FSL, so far, those he's tried to tempt have it a little better, Claire has Aaron and the adoptive parents aren't taking him, Nadia is alvie, Sawyer seems to be OK, and even Kate is in good with Claire and Aaron. What if what Flocke's offering all of them is this other Timeline we're watching? Jacob's Timeline = the one we've watched for five years, MIB's Timeline = The Flash-Sideways Line.

7. zmc: I think the only reason Kate walked out of the temple alive was because Claire made Flocke promise her (right before she walked into the temple) that she would be allowed to kill the person who was raising Aaron.Everyone else in the temple was dead except for Sayid and Claire (and those hidden behind the stone wall, which I am assuming the smoke monster couldn't get through). Sayid and Claire have reached an "agreement" with Flocke and Kate never met Flocke until last night...why should she be spared? I shouldn't think it very hard for the smoke monster to just reach down in that hole and grab her if he really wanted to.

8. Sister Carrie: Dogen would not kill Sayid with poison but tried to get Jack to administer the medicine.

Dogen would not kill the MIB but tried to get Sayid to stab him in the chest.

Dogen had a chance to kill Sayid but a glimpse of the baseball stopped his hand.

Is that part of the bargain: His son only lives if he refuses to take another life? Since he was the cause of his son's death, perhaps the bargain is reversed or invalidated if he chooses to take another life. As long as he lives and lets live (and performs his "new job"), his son lives.

I think that is why Flocke gave Kate the sideways glance when she walked out of the temple.

9. okgirl_ok: Wait, wait, wait.

I'm trying to figure this logic train out.

There's an epic, age-old struggle going on, tied to the island, and perhaps to the world off it as well.
MIB has been "trapped" and wants to leave the island
Jacob, we're not sure exactly what he wants. To protect the island? To save the Losties from some fate? To pis MIB offi? Either way, he can and does leave the island. And brings people to it. And comes and goes freely, until he's killed via some wackadoo loophole.
Now Jacob is dead, and for some reason, MIB isn't trapped anymore and tells people they can leave?

That doesn't make sense, so whatever, but regardless, this all points to one HUGE conclusion we've been leaving out completely:

WHO or WHAT DO MIB and JACOB ANSWER TO?

Because all that drama doesn't just stir itself up on its own for hundreds of years. Somebody else has some rules these boys have been playing by.

So, who's the man behind the curtain?

10. Haylscat: I have been reading this for a couple of seasons now and have never commented before, and I apologize if I am repeating what someone has already said (there are so many comments!) but I loved the depth of so many religious/mythological parallels in this episode. Other than the obvious LockeNess Monster/Jacob = Satan/Christ (especially with this new definition of LockeNess as evil incarnate), there was more Egyptian symbolism that jumped out at me.

When Dogen was explaining to Sayid about the machine that determines if a person is more good or evil, it made me think of the Egyptian 'Weighing of the Heart' in which a deceased person's heart is weighed on a balance against a feather to determine if their deeds in mortal life were good enough to let them move on in the Afterlife.